No Charges Filed After Altercation Between Two Itasca County Men

Itasca County Attorney John J. Muhar and Sheriff Victor J. Williams says that on April 15, an altercation between Mark Mehle, 82, of Goodland, Minnesota, and Ed Allen Spawn, 52, of Goodland, Minnesota, was called to the attention of the Itasca County Sheriffs Office by Ed Spawn.

An Itasca County Deputy promptly responded to Spawn’s residence and interviewed him about the incident. After he completed interviewing Spawn, Deputy Cory Rondeau learned that Mark David Mehle had contacted Itasca County Dispatch to report the same incident from the Hibbing Hospital. Deputy Rondeau then promptly responded to the Hibbing Hospital and interviewed Mark Mehle, and his son, Kristopher Adam Mehle about the incident.

On April 19, 2017, the Itasca County Sheriffs Office submitted a case file to the Itasca County Attorney’s Office for review. After completing
review of the evidence in the file, the Itasca County Attorney’s Office concluded that Mark David Mehle was the initial and primary aggressor throughout the altercation. Only after Spawn struck Mehle in the face in an attempt to defend himself, did Mehle cease his physical aggression toward Spawn.

The County Attorney’s Office states that Spawn did not act with intent to assault Mehle, but only in an effort to defend himself. The County Attorney’s Office concluded that Spawn had a legally viable claim of self-defense for his actions in punching Mehle in the face and that it would be inappropriate to bring criminal charges against Spawn for merely acting to defend himself.

No criminal charges were filed against either party in connection with this incident.

The incident between Mehle and Spawn has recently been extensively discussed on Facebook. The Itasca County Attorney’s Office says that the law enforcement investigation provides considerable additional information, which was not available in the Facebook discussion.